Ekos pollster on Canadian societal trends

[Joe Shlabotnik]

Excerpts from parts 1 and 2 of a 5 part series by (Liberal) pollster Frank Graves found at www.ipolitics.ca. Both articles have lots of graphs and are decent reads.

Crisis of confidence: The long fall of the middle class

"The American and Canadian dreams of a better future earned through hard work and ingenuity are fading and being replaced with a grimmer suspicion: that not only are we not doing better than our parents but the next generation will confront a much darker future. Whatever meagre profits do emanate from stagnant western economies are increasingly appropriated by a tiny cadre of über rich who don’t really participate in the mainstream of society."

"In our tracking over the past decade or so we have seen something new and important happening to that category of self-defined middle class. Once, nearly 70 per cent of Canadians called themselves middle class; that has now dropped to less than 50 per cent. Moreover, there is a virtual public consensus that over the past generation no class has fallen more steeply from economic grace than the beleaguered middle class. The middle class is shrinking, pessimistic and convinced that it is the clear loser in the economic reordering of the last twenty five years."

http://www.ipolitics.ca/2013/01/01/crisis-of-confidence-the-long-fall-of-the-middle-class/

Grey vs. green: The generational faultline in Canadian politics

"We also now see a widening gap emerging on core values, because the socially conservative values which are still powerful in older Canada have little relevance to younger Canada."

"Couple this with an unusually grim long-term economic outlook and we can see the ingredients for crisis coming together, in an aging society that desperately needs the innovation and dynamism of its younger cohort to fend off the daunting economic challenges we face."

"As the older cohort grew relative to younger voters, the young vote started to tune out. In the 1993 election younger voters participated slightly less than seniors, at around 65 per cent. Today the youth voting rate is about half that — while seniors’ voting rate has remained steady. Effectively, the youth vote has about one third to one quarter the political impact today that it did twenty years ago."

"Throwing one final ingredient into the mixture, we note that while the senior vote tended to be fairly evenly split between Liberal and Conservative options in the past, it now shows a dramatic convergence around the Conservatives. Putting these three factors together goes a long way to explaining why a federal government which champions values of security, safety, family and respect for authority has been so successful."

http://www.ipolitics.ca/2013/01/02/grey-vs-green-the-generational-faultline-in-canadian-politics/

[riverbendviewgal]

1. not in my neck of the woods

The poorer people get they will.turn to the NDP and Liberals. Most of my friends hate the PC. And we are not rich nor are we poor.

[MAD Dave]

2. Crisis of Confidence describes most Gen X'ers

It saddens me to no end that as a Gen X'er I am shouldered with a variety of responsibilities that have been passed down by our parents and grandparents. Whether it be the huge debt or the environmental damage or the disturbing decline in the middle class, the Gen X'ers are the first generation ever to have lifetime earnings less than their parents.

I'd like to thank past generations for raping their world and passing the shit onto their kids and grand kids. We reluctantly will pay for your sins.

[arikara]

3. I'm sorry you guys feel that way but

that's exactly what they want. They need us fighting against each other so they can steal everything worth having.

You think the boomers aren't getting screwed? We worked hard all our lives with the promise that we'd have a decent retirement at the end of it and that our kids would do better than us. Instead our pensions are disappearing just as we reach retirement and our kids are back at home with their kids. Its not us that are destroying the world. Its the rapacious capitalistic system that says corporations are people, and rewards thievery, corruption and the rape of Mother Earth.

We need to build communities that don't include them. We need to love and respect each other, and care about the other beings that live on this poor abused planet. The only way we're going to get out of this mess is to work together and kick these assholes out of power. And it won't happen if people keep sipping on their toxic kool aid and believing that their way is the only way.


Sorry about all the edits, I was just trying to say "welcome to DU"